I’ve been reading Rick Perlstein’s Nixonland for some time
now. What has especially stood out to me in my reading of that book has
been Perlstein’s discussion of the inner-cities, where there were
riots.
The inner-cities had problems, to put it mildly. The housing was old
and dilapidated. Unemployment was high. And African-Americans could
not really move out of the inner-cities to someplace else on account of
racial discrimination. According to Perlstein’s narration,
anti-discrimination laws and government programs were not sufficiently
ameliorating these problems. Moreover, I recall reading in other books
that businesses were reluctant to set up shop in the inner-cities, due
to apprehensions about crime. Imagine being trapped, with no way to
move up and out of one’s predicament. That’s what I imagine it was like
for a number of African-Americans who lived in the inner-cities. It
may still be like that. (I speak here from my limited knowledge and
experience.)
One of the Democratic candidates for President in 1968—-it may have
been Eugene McCarthy—-proposed mass transit as a way to give
African-Americans in the inner-city mobility so that they can find work
in other areas. That sounds to me like a good idea.